Identifying with the Biblical Deborah

 

Identifying with the Biblical Deborah
by Donna Diorio

Do you know of Deborah in the Bible? There are a great many prophetic & intercessory groups of women who see Deborah in themselves - including me but I want to issue a warning about that. the warning is to pay attention to the biblical Deborah as far as her vision of herself, because too many Christian women have mixed Feminist ideology with the prophetic figure Deborah.

For one thing, Deborah was not a behind-the-scenes-spiritual-prayer manipulator like Jezebel or Herodias. Many women who have taken up Deborah as their role model have zeroed in on the part about Deborah being willing to act when the leader of Israel Barak would not. Because of the feminist movement in our time, many women see themselves in this same role, having to take the lead because the men in their lives will not.

Abigail is another biblical figure that women married to ungodly, or cowardly men, or just men who fail to be men as God has ordained them to be, identify with. But the point in both Deborah and Abigail is not how they has to take the lead to do what was right in God's eyes, but how they did it without tipping over into even a hint of rebellion to the role of authority God has established for women, women in family life like Abigail, or a women in a seat of authority like the prophetess/judge Deborah.

The role of Deborah is clear to her, you can hear it in her response to Barak when she delivered God's command of what to do to protect Israel from Jabin's army. When he said he would only do it if she went with him, Deborah answered she would certainly go, but Barak would not have the honor of delivering the army commander into his hands, that honor would go to a woman. When men do not step up to the place of authority God has given them, it is a dishonor to the man. Deborah recognized that. She didn't take pride in being a stronger woman and she didn't let Barak off the hook by letting him think it was okay with God.

In Judges 5:2, Deborah sings the integrity she acted in: “When the princes in Israel take the lead, when the people willingly offer themselves—praise the Lord!"

It's not about women being capable of leading. Of course we are.

It is about men leading as they should - it is the charge of God for men and women dating back to Genesis 1-3. God made men to lead, not only their families, but also the battles of the LORD.

When Peter addressed husbands in 1 Pe 3:7 about their wives being "the weaker vessel" he was referring to the fact that God has made men physically stronger and by nature, designed to lead. It is no shame to women to have been made more nurturing than men; men were made to function in a different way that demands another set of emotional parameters. The physical strength of men over women is seen in the how the farce of trans "women" competing in women's sports are mopping the floor with the best of female sports competitors. When a lie plays out to the finish, that is how it becomes obvious to all that it is lie. Men and women have been created to be different from each other and to fulfill different mandates before God.

Women in prayer are not the generals of the prayer army. They are not praying to 'shape' up the men into action to be more like them. They should be hearing from God how to pray, and when in doubt, praying God's Word over them is best. Any group of women (and sometimes men too) meeting to intercede to get their husbands or others including spiritual leaders to do as the pray-ers think is best, are acting more in a spiritual witchcraft vein, than in praying for God to lift those men (or women) up to a higher place in Him. We aren't the Holy Spirit.

And this is really my point: there is praying FOR people and preying UPON people. When we don't pray in love for someone, but rather we view that person as out of line and in need of changes that we pray over them, we better check ourselves because if it is coming our of our own selves and not from God, it will harm people, not help them. It is a fine line between intercessory praying out of love for people, and praying manipulative prayers guided by human emotions rather than the direction of God. If you see the person you are praying about and a feeling of revulsion or anger arises in your heart or sometimes on your face, that's a good sign your prayers are dispatching demons against them, not ministering angels.

The feminist vision for women is ungodly. It destroys men, children and ultimately the women it is supposed to be helping. Deborah in Judges was not a feminist; she was a godly woman hearing from God and operating in the prophetic out of love for her people, not out of desire to be seen as a great leader. Watch your ambitions.